Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Soup

One of the difficulties with wanting to help people learn about cooking or food, is simply the inspiration of where to start. I considered doing this over a year ago when I saw pancake mix as an convenience product. As it would have worked out to be three times the price of making pancakes using the ingredients of Egg, Flour and Milk, it really made me wonder why this was happening. As it was not going to save time, so what had changed so that people had lost the skill to cook?

While I fully understand that peoples lives have become so full that time pressures can make it difficult for people to cook meals from scratch everyday, I found it shocking that many people actually did not know how to cook. From talking to people, I discovered many people, men and women who have such a basic range of cooking skills that they can barely cook potatoes. While talking to other villagers in this former mining village, I discovered a woman who could not cook rice, so would buy rice from a take away when she would have needed to cook it. It took me ten minutes to show her and help her save money.

However, I realise that if I make these films to basic, I may well put off many people that already have the basic skills. So I hope that folks will bare with me and take the time to give feedback so that I can see if I am being helpful or not.

I am starting with some simple soups, as even for folks that have never cooked before, they are so easy that help give people confidence in the kitchen. Also with the recession biting for many, soups can be a great money saving lunch idea too.

Half a Butternut Squash
Two small or one Large Sweet Potato
One Vegetable Stock Cube
Water
Two Bay Leaves
Salt And Pepper to taste

The Squash and the sweet potato can be roasted first. This can be done the day before while cooking another dish. However if this has not been possible then just follow the same method as this can be made with roasted or un-roasted veg.

Method

Peel and chop the vegetables into even sized chunks.
Place in a pan and pour on two pints or one litre of water.
Add a vegetable stock cube and two bay leaves.
Bring to the boil and turn the heat down and let the vegetables simmer for half an hour.
There is no need to add salt during cooking as stock cubes have a lot of salt in them already.
When the vegetables are cooked drain the vegetables reserving the cooking stock.
Remove the bay leaves and put the vegetables into a blender. If you don't have a blender you can use a potato masher (ricer) or a stick blender, but it will not make the soup as smooth.
Use some of the cooking stock to blend the soup.
Pour the blended mixture back into the remaining stock, reheat, check the seasoning and add a little salt if needed and pepper to taste and serve hot.

I also hope that you liked the film, I have listened to my critics and I hope that it was not to boring. If it was then I know you will tell me.

Welcome to Cooking Animals

As the regular reader of my Wildlife and Environmental Blog know, I have been threatening to do something related to Farming, Food and Cooking for awhile.

Partly this was because I discovered how few people knew how to cook, or at least were afraid to try cooking. When the Recession started I started to film material for a Video Pod Cast to show some of the basic kitchen skills so that people can see how easy and enjoyable cooking can be. However, I wanted to be sure that I was not trying to teach Grandma to suck... well you get the picture.

Personally I am passionate about food, as my waistline shows. While I am calling this Blog “Cooking Animals”, I will frequently be talking about vegetarian food and cooking, so I hope that meat eaters and non meat eaters will be able to enjoy this self indulgence.

I hope that I will be able to get people thinking about the food they eat, the sources of that food, and the power of the supermarkets. While I am fully aware that most people have little choice about where they buy their food from, often once people start to understand the way the major retailers market their products to us, then you will discover that the supermarkets are not as cheap as they would have us believe. I also hope that I can, via the Video Pod Cast, show that many of the “Convenience” foods can be reproduced at home cheaper. Often taking no more time than it takes to cook the “Convenience food”. However much more importantly without all the added chemicals that are so often, quite legally, added to our food.

I am a great fan of seasonal eating. While the supermarkets can supply many items all year round, it is when a food is in season, that it is fresh and at its cheapest. Discovering the seasons can often help folks on a tight budget to make ends meet. But also eating food when its in season will ensure that you get the maximum nutritional benefit from the food too.

It is likely that I will introduce you to some new ingredients too. When I was vegetarian, I discovered a whole range of foods that are not common but can allow a cook to be creative in the kitchen. So anyone who has an open mind and is willing to try new things may discover new dishes, or alternative ways of doing things.

The postings here will cover a range of issues often with looking at the environmental impact of our food. Back in the 1970s when I became a vegetarian it was because of reading a book that was predicting BSE. This book alerted me to the fact that I along with most other people, did not know where the food we were eating came from. Also, it alerted me to the problems of industrial farming. While factory farming may have enabled many foods to be produced cheaply, it is the hidden costs that frequently cause problems elsewhere.

I genuinely welcome any comments on what I am doing here. I can not promise to respond personally, but your ideas and suggestions may well help shape this into something that helps people understand food, cooking and how to make wise choices.